The Stardust Lounge (22 page)

Throughout my high school career, much of my extracurricular experience in the arts and the social sciences has been of my own invention. This is because my interests in music, photography, poetry, and psychology have tended to be nontraditional. While my school has offered me opportunities in talent shows, the darkroom, and the classroom (I made the honor roll this year), I have independently set up my own means of practicing my art by creating my own music studio and darkroom.

I have also contracted, this year, to complete an internship with Amherst psychologist Eduardo Bustamante, whose work focuses on spirited children who cannot learn in traditional settings. Under Dr. Bustamante's guidance I have worked with and helped to counsel ADD and ADHD children. Using Dr. Bustamante's Play and Pride approach, I am completing my own studies on my observations of new ways for children with frontal-lobe deficiencies to be challenged and successful. Not only have I been proud to assist Dr. Bustamante, but this project has been extremely helpful to me as a person with ADD. I, too, have had trouble learning in the highly traditional setting of public school. Working and reading and writing on the subject have given me confidence in my own nontraditional ways of learning. I believe that I have also given confidence and insight to those who are struggling with some of the same problems I have faced at school.

From The Broken Composition / Photos by Stephen Digges

My family and I have also traveled extensively, so once again, my “classroom “ has been the world. My family and I lived in London for two years prior to my attending Amherst Regional High School. Attending the American School in London, I interacted with classmates from all over the world. I have also traveled to Italy and Holland. My visit to Amsterdam I planned myself; this December, for the first time, I set out without parents to explore the Netherlands.

Last summer I traveled to New York to be a student at Parsons School of Design Summer Intensive Program in Photography. This experience above all others has led me to know that what I want to do with my life is to be a photo journalist, be out in the world with my camera. The Parsons project I invented for myself was to interview individuals who are homeless and to ask their permission to be photographed. I completed a photographic essay on these individuals in a book of my own creation entitled
The Broken Composition.
It is my ambition to expand this project and, along with my photographs, carefully and articulately narrate the stories of those who so willingly shared with me their experiences.

Stephen P. Digges

To: Amherst Building Inspector

Description of work done on conversion of two-car garage (length) into study (back) and summer porch /room (front) at 101 Blue Hills Road:

Back of garage was made into a study in 1992 by my former husband, Stanley Plumly, who took ownership of the house at that time.

He did much of the work himself and, from what I understand, did not know that he must have a permit to fix up the back portion of the garage. Over the course of several years, he insulated the room himself and hired someone to wire the room as well as install a wall heater.

E. T, a builder, helped with Sheetrocking the ceilings. Stanley Plumly also had indoor/outdoor carpeting put in.

I talked to him recently on the phone about it and he estimated that all the materials he bought or had in his possession cost around three thousand dollars. At the time of the back room's completion, the front of the garage remained unfinished.

Stanley Plumly has not resided at the above address since 1993. At our divorce, I was given the house.

I have not refinanced, because I would have had to do so at a much higher interest rate. I am forwarding to the Town of Amherst a copy of our divorce decree so that it can be shown that the house is legally mine.

Front of garage was converted in 1995. My own son and my foster son painted the walls and ceilings and I installed a ceiling fan. E. T. helped us with four skylights and put a wall with door and window up where we had taken out the garage door.

We also set up an old woodstove I had bought at a garage sale which now is used as a planter. E. T. put in the chimney but advised us not to use the stove since it would need afire-wall behind it. Stove has plants on and around it.

In the spring of 19961 had indoor/outdoor carpeting put in and tile installed under the stove that matched tile in the entryway. The cost of putting up the wall where the garage door had been, plus the cost of the skylights, carpeting, tile, etc., came to about three thousand dollars.

Thus, I am including eighty-five dollars to be sure to cover everything. If there are any additional adjustments, please contact me since I am willing to do whatever is necessary for this work to be sanctioned and permissible to the Amherst Building Inspector.

Sincerely…

I have known Stephen for the past four years, first through his interest in
—
and affection for
—
animals, and then more generally I came to know him and his family (his mother is
a professor at Tufts University, where I was dean of veterinary medicine for nearly fourteen years before moving to Cornell last fall).

Steve is one of the most interesting and creative youngsters I have come to know. He is particularly interested in the cultural and emotional dimensions of factual material. Animals interested him initially because of their ability, in his eyes, to express ‘[feelings “ in particular situations. Later he came to become interested in their behavior and when his talent for photography emerged, he applied this to animals and other parts of the natural world.

He is what I would describe as a “non-linear” learner; he makes observations anecdotally, then merges them over time into a coherence that makes order out of the whole. Thus, he is a talented maker of music using synthesizers, photographs using multiple images (of en superimposed), and unusual vocabulary words.

Clearly I am not a professional in the area of the arts, but Stephen is a very special person, and I have dealt with people his age for over thirty years. I believe him to have a special dedication to and talent for the creative arts in a way I've not previously encountered. And he is extremely caring in his dealings with other people and, of course, with animals.

Franklin M. Loew

Dean

Cornell Veterinary College

Corrections and changes for Rough Music.

1 See acknowledgments page: Note that the poem initially titled “The Afterlife” has been changed to “Chekhov's Darling. “ The acknowledgment
Ploughshares
should read “Chekhov's Darling” under the title “The Afterlife.”

2. See dedication page: Note that the name Frank has been added to the dedication. Thus, the dedication should read: “For Stephen and Charles, for Trevor, and Susan, and Gerry, and Max, and for Frank.”

3. See table of contents page: The title of “The Afterlife” has been changed to “Chekhov's Darling” (17th poem).

4. See “Late Summer,” page 6. Note correction in line 23. “Theresa” has been corrected to “Therese.”

5. See page 12, second page of “Rune for the Parable of Despair.” In line 6 of the second page, note that the word “blessed” has been put in quotation marks.

6. See page 15, line 17 of “Rough Music.” There should be a hyphen between “breaking” and “glass.” It should read “breaking-glass.”

7. See page 32, “Morning After a Blizzard.” Drop the And” that begins the poem. It should read, “What could they possibly need to bury in heaven? “

8. See page 36, “Five Smooth Stones.” The first letter of line 12 should be capitalized since it is the beginning of a new
sentence. It should read,
^u
He walks the streets opening gates for the yard dogs
…”

9. See page 38. Change title of poem from “The Afterlife” to “Chekhov's Darling.”

At line five break line at the word “raised.”

Add a dash after the word “pain.”

Omit the lines, “like Chekhov's and it was clear to them the end was still far off…”